The Biden administration is thinking about selling more weapons to Israel despite requests to stop giving weapons to the ally due to increasing civilian deaths in Gaza, The Hill confirmed on Monday.
The U.S. government is thinking about selling Israel around 50 new F-15 fighter jets, 30 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which can turn basic bombs into precise weapons. Politico was the first to report on this..
A staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee later confirmed to The Hill that the administration informally informed the relevant congressional panels about the sale.
The staff member confirmed that “the chairman approved the transaction to proceed to formal congressional notification.”
The Pentagon redirected questions about the potential sale to the State Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.
The sale, which is still awaiting approval from the U.S. government, is happening at a time when there are increasing demands for President Biden to withhold weapons from Israel if it doesn't act to reduce civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip. An intense air and ground campaign by the Israeli military against Hamas militants in the area since October has already resulted in the deaths of over 31,000 Palestinians, the majority being women and children.
Many, including individuals within Biden’s own party, have also argued that the president should refuse to provide weapons to Israel if it launches a large-scale attack on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah. More than 1 million Palestinian civilians are staying there after being forced from the northern parts of the region due to the fighting.
American officials have cautioned against a ground invasion of the city without a clear plan to move civilians out of harm’s way.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Sunday the United States needs to use its “influence” to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Gaza. He also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he “continues to reject the president of the United States time and time again.”
“We have different parts of influence and one of them is sending more offensive weapons. So, President Biden needs to be as serious about ensuring more humanitarian assistance gets into Gaza as Netanyahu has been in making his demands,” Van Hollen said on ABC News’s “This Week.”
He added, “So, my view … is until the Netanyahu government allows more assistance into Gaza, to help people who are literally starving to death, we should not be sending more bombs.”
And Josh Paul, who worked for the State Department for more than a decade, resigned in October in protest of Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, writing in his resignation letter that the harm caused by the “provision of lethal arms to Israel” outweighed the good he could do in his role.
